1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing a light emitting device, and to a light emitting device, in which a phosphor layer is formed on the surface of a light emitting element.
2. Related Art
It is generally known that a light emitting device in which a light emitting element is used is compact, has good power efficiency, and emits light in clear colors. Since the light emitting element pertaining to this light emitting device is a semiconductor element, not only is there no worry about bulbs burning out and so forth, but the initial drive characteristics are excellent, and the device is resistant to vibration and repeated switching on and off. Because of these excellent characteristics, light emitting devices that make use of light emitting diodes (LED), laser diode (LD), or other such light emitting elements are utilized in various kinds of light source.
The most popular method for producing a white LED, for example, is to coat the area around an LED element that emits blue light, with a yellow phosphor that turns the blue light from the LED element into excitation light. As such a method for forming a phosphor on the surface of an LED element, a technique has been disclosed in which a phosphor layer (wavelength conversion layer) of a light emitting device is formed by spray coating, thereby forming a phosphor layer in a uniform thickness (uniform phosphor coating) over the LED element (see, WO2013/054658).
With a light emitting device in which a phosphor layer is formed, light distribution characteristics close to those of a point light source can be obtained by forming the phosphor layer extremely close to the light emitting element. When a light emitting device as a point light source is used, because it has a small emission surface area, it is easier to design an applied product that incorporates this light emitting device. Accordingly, light emitting devices used as a point light source are expected to use in the field of lighting and many other fields.